Soup Throws Against Van Gogh’s Sunflowers | Three activists plead not guilty

(London) Three activists from the environmental group Just Stop Oil pleaded not guilty on Monday before a London court which is prosecuting them for “criminal damage”, after throwing soup on Friday on two tables of Sunflowers by Van Gogh, protected by glass, at the National Gallery.

This new action came just after the sentencing on Friday of two other activists from this environmental group to prison for similar facts in 2022. Just Stop Oil calls for an end to fossil fuels by 2030 in the United Kingdom.

Stephen Simpson, 71, Mary Somerville, 77, and Phillipa Green, 24, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

They are being prosecuted for having thrown soup on two versions of Sunflowers by Van Gogh: a painting from 1888, already targeted at the National Gallery, and the other from 1889, on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as part of the exhibition “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” (“Van Gogh : poets and lovers”).

The paintings themselves were not damaged but prosecutor James Bowker said their frames were damaged. He specified that the frame of the painting belonging to the National Gallery, estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds (between 18,000 and 36,000 Canadian dollars), would undoubtedly “require a tedious restoration”, and that the other frame would have to have a “similar” value.

Defense lawyer Raj Chada said the damage to the frames had not yet been assessed and stressed the absence of damage to the paintings themselves, “covered by thick protective glass”.

The three Just Stop Oil activists acted shortly after the sentencing on Friday morning of Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, to two years and 20 months in prison respectively by British justice, for having doused the table of Sunflowers at the National Gallery already, in October 2022. The action had slightly damaged the frame surrounding the work.

The three activists were released on bail. A new hearing is scheduled for October 28.